SECTOR 3 entire broadcasting sector’. MultiChoice was licensed to operate in 2007, but its individual channels do not need licences from ICASA. The licensing process was considered overall to be in the interest of fairness, with the Gupta-owned ANN7 being a case in point. ‘If ICASA regulated unfairly, it would have given ANN7 a broadcasting licence in the last round. It’s clear that the really bad ones don’t get a licence.’ ‘Other than licensing, in practice, ICASA has been terrible at standing up to government in terms of its poor policy decisions with regard to broadcasting. The Electronic Communications Act is a case in point as this has been very bad for broadcasting, but the ICASA chair was very reticent to embarrass or undermine the executive by speaking out against it.’ Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country meets only a few aspects of indicator 3 Country meets some aspects of indicator 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator Average score: ✓✓✓✓✓✓ ✓✓✓ ✓✓✓ 3.8 (2013: 3.6; 2010: 2.6; 2008: 4.1; 2006: 4.0) 3.4 The state/public broadcaster is accountable to the public through an independent board which is representative of society at large and selected in an independent, open and transparent manner The SABC has been in a state of disarray and flux for many years. Between 2013 and 2018, two 12-member boards were appointed. Similar to the appointment of the ICASA board, people are nominated to the SABC board, and these nominations are then reviewed and shortlisted by parliament. While the board from 2013 was regarded as being obviously politically appointed with a strong bias towards the ANC, panellists felt that the current board, appointed in 2017, was less biased politically. In the past, the appointment of the board’s non-executive and executive directors was not transparent and there appeared to have been considerable leeway for the Minister to choose preferred candidates, with political bias playing an active role. However, FXI, MMA and SOS were victorious in a June 2018 High Court ruling over the invalidity of certain sections of the SABC’s Memorandum of 39 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER SOUTH AFRICA 2018